'Startling' Data Upset Certification Program For Science Teachers

Reacting to what he called "startling"
new survey findings, the head of the country's
largest organization of science educators
has indicated he is rethinking the emphasis
of his organization's recently
initiated program for certifying secondary-school
science teachers.

"We were wrong," said Bill G. Aldridge,
executive director of the National Science
Teachers Association. "We should be preparing
high-school science teachers, not
specialists."

Most high-school science teachers teach
several science subjects, rather than a single
discipline, according to an N.S.T.A. survey
that Mr. Aldridge described as the most
extensive look at high-school science classes
ever undertaken. The survey also found
that, contrary to the association's previous
claims, few science classes are taught by
nonscience teachers.

In addition, it found, a large number of
schools offer few science classes, and many
offer none at all.

The findings indicate that rather than issue
certificates that require greater training
in specific disciplines, as the N.S.T.A. has
advocated, science-education organizations
should work toward broadening the training
of science teachers, Mr. Aldridge concluded.

'The market requires teachers with at
least three fields of specialization," he said.
''We must create new types of certification
for teachers with multiple assignments."

''1 think it is possible" to move toward a
broader certification that could accommodate
several disciplines, he continued. ''We will try to look for patterns that
make some sense."

He rejected the idea that teachers
should be certified in all the subjects
they expect to teach. "You can't possibly
get an undergraduate degree
and have 50 hours in two subjects,"
he noted.

The N.S.T.A. this fall began issuing
its own certification credentials in
response to concern that current
state-certification systems have allowed
the hiring of unqualified science
teachers For high-school
teachers, the N.S.T.A. credential requires,
in part, 50 hours of undergraduate
work in a particular science
discipline.

Mr. Aldridge has said that 70 percent
of current high-school teachers
could not meet that requirement.

But the new finding!; indicate that
"there won't be very many people for
whom that [requirement] is appropriate,"
he conceded.

However, he added, the fact that
relatively few nonscience teachers
are teaching science classes suggests that it might be easier than he
had expected to raise the qualifications!;
of those entering the field.

N.S.F. Funded Analysis

His organization has been collecting
data for years, Mr. Aldridge I
pointed out, but had not analyzed it
until this year, when the group received
a $60,000 grant for that purpose
from the National Science
Foundation.

Some of the data will be published
in an N.S.T.A. journal and in the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science's forum on
school science this fall, he said. The
organization will make the complete
data available early next year.

The survey was based on a random
sampling of 2.211 high schools
and 8,539 science teachers.

The N.S.T.A. estimates that, in the
1985-86 school year, a total of 24,256
high schools in the country employed
94,480 instructors to teach
science classes and offered 424,518
science sections.

A closer look at the data revealed
how teachers are assigned. The
N.S.T.A. researchers, extrapolating
from the figures from the sampling,
estimated that of 19,028 physics
teachers nationwide, about 12,000
taught only one section of physics,
while another 3,600 taught two sections.
Since teachers average 4.5
sections a day, the conclusion was
that these teachers must have
taught other courses as well, Mr. Aldridge
noted.

Thus, he said, "it doesn't make
any sense at all to require a baccalaureate
in physics for a high-school I
physics teacher."

"Principals are seeing them as science
teachers, assigning them to
any science that's available," he
said.

Scott D. Thomson, executive director
of the National Association
of Secondary School Principals,
agreed that "this is not an ideal situation,"
but added that science class
assignments depend on the
number of students who elect to
take the courses.

"If the number of class sections
you have doesn't match the number
of teachers, and they never do exactly,
then you look for someone who
can fill in," he said.

Usually, Mr. Thomson added,
principals look for someone with an
undergraduate minor in the field
needing to be covered.

Mr. Aldridge conceded that it was
unlikely that principals' practices in
assigning science teachers would
change quickly.

"We are not going to convince
school systems to eliminate small
schools and merge into larger
schools in order to have specialists,"
he said.

Reforms Seen Lacking

The survey also discovered that
despite a strong emphasis by many
school reformers on strengthening
science requirements for high-school
graduation, many high
schools offer few science classes.

Extrapolating from the survey,
the N.S.T.A. concluded that:

More than 7,000 high schools-
29.3 percent-offer no physics classes,
while 91.3 percent offer three
sections or fewer.

More than 4,000-17.1 percent offer
no chemistry, and 77.6 percent
offer three sections or fewer.

Almost 1,900--7.6 percent-offer
no biology, and 43.5 percent offer
three sections or fewer.

Moreover, the survey found,
smaller non public schools tended to
offer more science classes than public
schools of comparable size.

"In spite of all the reforms, it
doesn't look like a huge number of
students" are taking science classes,
Mr. Aldridge said.

He suggested that many schools
may apply the new graduation requirements
only to college-bound
students, and that dropout rates
may account for some of the results.

Other findings of the survey conformed
to common expectations. For
example, it found, about two thirds
of high-school science teachers are
male, and a higher percentage of
physical-science teachers are
male.

In addition, the survey looked at
computer use, and it found that 26.9
percent of science teachers use computers
in their classes. The proportions
were higher, as expected, in
the physical sciences: 41. 7 percent of
physics teachers and 34.3 percent of
chemistry teachers reported using
computers for instruction. Of biology
teachers, 22.6 percent used
them.

The survey also found that computer
use is more prevalent in public
schools than in nonpublic schools

Vol. 06, Issue 03, Pages 1, 15

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